What We’re Reading

New York Times reporters and editors are highlighting great stories from around the web. You can receive What We’re Reading by email, and let us know how you like it at wwr@nytimes.com.

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Tell All

From Splinter: Welcome to the United States of Snitches, land of the petty, home of the brazen — at least when they’re anonymous. Except they aren’t when they call the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (Voice) hotline run by the federal government. This report not only documents Americans dropping a dime on their neighbors, it reveals that Voice stupidly posted online personal identity details, even Social Security numbers, of both complainants and accused. In most cases there weren’t even crimes involved, viz.: “Caller requested to report her mother-in law and sister-in law. Caller stated these individuals came to the U.S. as tourists and stayed in the U.S. in order to get legal status.” — Rod Nordland, international correspondent at large

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CreditPablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

The Making of a Scoop

From Politico: Over the past several weeks, Politico smoked the competition in Washington with a series of stories about the private jet travel of Tom Price, President Trump’s health secretary. After Mr. Price resigned, the two reporters who broke open this story wrote about how much time, energy and resources went into their investigation. In an era where news outlets are struggling to stay afloat, there are no better examples of why it’s so important to have beat reporters who can zero in on a big target when needed. — Katie Rogers, correspondent

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CreditAndrew Harnik/Associated Press

Unsteady Ground

From The New York Times: In today’s roundup of partisan writing you shouldn’t miss, writers from across the political spectrum assess the relationship between President Trump and his secretary of state and the deepening fractures within the Republican Party. — Justin Bank, senior editor, internet and audience

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CreditJim Wilson/The New York Times

Citizenship 101

From Chronicle of Higher Education: Why do we hear of speech suppressed even at UC Berkeley, calls for “some muscle” to intimidate a student journalist and campus trials that ignore the rights of accused? Because, according to this professor overseeing Columbia University’s core curriculum, too many students are never taught the basics of liberal democracy — indeed, are even encouraged to sneer at it. (Obligatory disclosure: I exercise another fundamental American right — to play softball — with this prof.) — Donald G. McNeil Jr., science reporter

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Paradigm Lost

From New York Magazine: This excellent piece on Facebook, by Max Read, digs deep into one simple, essential question. What is Facebook, exactly? Is it a nation-state, aiming to be a kind of neutral Switzerland at a geopolitical level? Is it the world’s largest surveillance network? Is it a globalist’s dream come true? We don’t seem to come to an answer, which seems to be the point. Perhaps we should ask Mr. Zuckerberg? — Mike Isaac, technology reporter

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CreditDavid Dunlap/The New York Times

Full Cycle

From Sapiens: While most Americans view talk of death and dying as morbid and unpleasant, this university professor created a class on it, in the hopes of teaching her students to come to terms with their own relationship to life’s only certainty. “One of the students asked Joe — the no-nonsense custodian — whether we could peek inside one of the furnaces. ‘Not right now,’ Joe said, shaking his head. ‘There’s someone in there.’” — KJ Dell’Antonia, regular contributor

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CreditTodd Heisler/The New York Times

Grids and Greatness

From BBC: What makes a city great? And what makes it a failure? This BBC video (which runs all of two minutes and change) looks at what makes a perfect city, from ancient Greece to recent and radical visions of urban planning. And it’s all done through strikingly simple animation. — Dan Saltzstein, senior staff editor, Travel

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The Cathedral of Modernism

From Bloomberg: Ah, those were the days of the jet age, when passing through Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport combined elegance and modernism, even if chaos awaited outside. The charms of the terminal outlasted the airline itself, which foundered after deregulation. Now it will be reborn as a 505-room hotel — rates unspecified, but let’s hope public spaces will be open to those looking for a flashback. — Kevin McKenna, deputy business editor

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More Than You Know

From The Allusionist: You’ve probably read a bajillion great pieces thanks to this newsletter. Or maybe a quadrillion? Which of those numbers is bigger? Do they exist at all? This fun podcast considers “indefinite hyperbolic numerals” and how we instinctively know that a bazillion is bigger than a zillion. — Prashant Rao, deputy Europe business editor